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Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 169, NO. 18 | Monday February 8, 2010
InDEX
2 · News Digest
4 · Opinion
5 · Lifestyle
8 · Classifieds
10 · Crossword
12 · Sports
Sweet treats: Downtown cafe
Syrup Desserts serves refreshment
and innovation. PAGE 5
Just enough: USC men’s basketball
sneaks by Stanford with a last
minute tip-in. PAGE 12
By grace wong
Daily Trojan
Beginning Monday, the campus will be blanketed
with colorful f liers, pamphlets and posters as the can-didates
for Undergraduate Student Government begin
vying for students’ votes.
Campaign period officially starts Monday. Until
now, candidates have been doing research, talking
to student groups to get a feel for the key issues on
students’ minds, and have been barred from any sort
of campaigning. But on Monday, it will be full steam
ahead.
Though candidates for senatorial positions will be
campaigning too, the bulk of the politicking will be
done by the four presidential tickets.
Running for president and vice president this
year: junior Christopher Cheng, currently USG’s di-rector
of outreach, and junior Nehi Ogbevoen; ju-nior
Dylan Dann, currently a Greek Senator, and ju-nior
Addison McCaleb; junior Andrew Matson, USG’s
current Director of Academic Affairs, and sophomore
Juan Orjuela; and junior Jonathan Munoz-Proulx and
sophomore Ryan Walsh.
USG Vice President Ashlie Chan said students
should expect a lot of “in-your-face material” when
campaigning begins Monday.
“The whole point of the election is to be as big of a face
as possible and to be a presence on campus,” Chan said.
Campaigning
begins today for
USG hopefuls
Elections officials hope to avoid the violations
that plagued last year’s campaign period.
| see elections, page 3 |
Heather Lee | Daily Trojan
Final draft
Sheldon Turner (right), co-screenwriter of the Oscar-nominated screenplay Up in the Air, accepts the USC Scripter Award Saturday night. The
award, which is presented annually by USC Libraries, recognizes excellence in film adaptations. Also accepting the award was USC alum Jason
Reitman (far left), who co-wrote and directed the film. Up in the Air was adapted from the 2001 novel of the same name by Walter Kirn.
By ebony bailey
Daily Trojan
Neighborhood students who
dream of one day entering the
Trojan family now have a little more
support.
The USC Neighborhood
Academic Initiative, a program
aimed at helping neighborhood stu-dents
continue on to college, recent-ly
received a $250,000 grant from
the Kresge Foundation, an organi-zation
that awards money to non-profits
in the fields of health, the
environment, community develop-ment,
arts and culture, education
and human services.
NAI is a six-year program that
starts during middle school. The
program works with students to as-sure
placement at colleges or uni-versities.
The Kresge Foundation asked
NAI to apply for the grant, accord-ing
to NAI director Kim Thomas-
Barrios. She said this is a reflection
of the effectiveness of the NAI pro-gram.
“Having Kresge just ask to apply
Program for
local students
receives grant
USC’s Neighborhood Academic
Initiative helps area students
prepare to enter universities.
| see grant, page 3 |
By rebecca buddingh
Daily Trojan
For the past few years, USC has earned the
honor of being the university with the largest in-ternational
student population, but competition
— even for this large number of spots — may be
getting tougher.
The undergraduate applicant pool for the grad-uating
class of 2014 has seen a steep increase this
application season in the number of international
applications and an even more dramatic increase
in the number of applications from China.
According to the USC Office of Admission, the
number of international applicants has risen by
22 percent this year. The number of Chinese in-ternational
applicants, however, is up by three
times that, rising 66 percent.
“That’s not an uncommon occurrence,” said
Tim Brunold, associate dean and director of un-dergraduate
admission. “The applications have
been increasing from international students at a
very steady pace for several years now.”
Brunold noted that this increase is not specif-ic
to USC.
“I believe that it is consistent with other uni-versities.
I do think that there is a general sense
among many American colleges and universities
that China is a good place to go recruit students,”
Brunold said. “I think that this growing trend of
China is going to be something that will be with
us for a while.”
Still, Brunold attributed the steep rise to appli-cations
to USC from Chinese applications to an
increased outreach effort by USC Admissions.
“There’s always been a lot of interest from
Chinese students at our graduate level,” he said.
“But more recently, China has really taken over
the top spot in our freshman recruiting.”
While the number of applications might be
higher, Brunold said the percentage of Chinese
applicants admitted to USC has remained similar
to the overall average of acceptances over the past
two years. For the 2012 graduating class, 14.5 per-cent
of Chinese applicants were admitted, and 29
percent of Chinese applicants were admitted into
the 2013 graduating class, compared to an overall
admissions rate of 24 percent for the class of 2013.
Though Brunold expects the number of appli-cants
from China to continue to rise, he said the
university does not necessarily plan on increas-ing
enrollment.
“Every indication we have is that it will con-tinue
to rise. That also means though, just like
with any other group of students, it is going to get
more competitive. Whenever you have more ap-plicants,
there’s more competition,” Brunold said.
He added that the university is “very pleased”
Undergraduate applications from China up dramatically
Though applications are up 66 percent,
admission officials say the number
accepted will remain roughly the same.
| see china, page 2 |
Applications to USC
Source: Office of Admission
Percentage 25 50 75
Acceptance rate of Chinese applicants (class of 2012)
Increase in international applications
Overall increase in applications
Increase in Chinese applicants
Acceptance rate of Chinese applicants (2013)
Natalie Chau | Daily Trojan

Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 169, NO. 18 | Monday February 8, 2010
InDEX
2 · News Digest
4 · Opinion
5 · Lifestyle
8 · Classifieds
10 · Crossword
12 · Sports
Sweet treats: Downtown cafe
Syrup Desserts serves refreshment
and innovation. PAGE 5
Just enough: USC men’s basketball
sneaks by Stanford with a last
minute tip-in. PAGE 12
By grace wong
Daily Trojan
Beginning Monday, the campus will be blanketed
with colorful f liers, pamphlets and posters as the can-didates
for Undergraduate Student Government begin
vying for students’ votes.
Campaign period officially starts Monday. Until
now, candidates have been doing research, talking
to student groups to get a feel for the key issues on
students’ minds, and have been barred from any sort
of campaigning. But on Monday, it will be full steam
ahead.
Though candidates for senatorial positions will be
campaigning too, the bulk of the politicking will be
done by the four presidential tickets.
Running for president and vice president this
year: junior Christopher Cheng, currently USG’s di-rector
of outreach, and junior Nehi Ogbevoen; ju-nior
Dylan Dann, currently a Greek Senator, and ju-nior
Addison McCaleb; junior Andrew Matson, USG’s
current Director of Academic Affairs, and sophomore
Juan Orjuela; and junior Jonathan Munoz-Proulx and
sophomore Ryan Walsh.
USG Vice President Ashlie Chan said students
should expect a lot of “in-your-face material” when
campaigning begins Monday.
“The whole point of the election is to be as big of a face
as possible and to be a presence on campus,” Chan said.
Campaigning
begins today for
USG hopefuls
Elections officials hope to avoid the violations
that plagued last year’s campaign period.
| see elections, page 3 |
Heather Lee | Daily Trojan
Final draft
Sheldon Turner (right), co-screenwriter of the Oscar-nominated screenplay Up in the Air, accepts the USC Scripter Award Saturday night. The
award, which is presented annually by USC Libraries, recognizes excellence in film adaptations. Also accepting the award was USC alum Jason
Reitman (far left), who co-wrote and directed the film. Up in the Air was adapted from the 2001 novel of the same name by Walter Kirn.
By ebony bailey
Daily Trojan
Neighborhood students who
dream of one day entering the
Trojan family now have a little more
support.
The USC Neighborhood
Academic Initiative, a program
aimed at helping neighborhood stu-dents
continue on to college, recent-ly
received a $250,000 grant from
the Kresge Foundation, an organi-zation
that awards money to non-profits
in the fields of health, the
environment, community develop-ment,
arts and culture, education
and human services.
NAI is a six-year program that
starts during middle school. The
program works with students to as-sure
placement at colleges or uni-versities.
The Kresge Foundation asked
NAI to apply for the grant, accord-ing
to NAI director Kim Thomas-
Barrios. She said this is a reflection
of the effectiveness of the NAI pro-gram.
“Having Kresge just ask to apply
Program for
local students
receives grant
USC’s Neighborhood Academic
Initiative helps area students
prepare to enter universities.
| see grant, page 3 |
By rebecca buddingh
Daily Trojan
For the past few years, USC has earned the
honor of being the university with the largest in-ternational
student population, but competition
— even for this large number of spots — may be
getting tougher.
The undergraduate applicant pool for the grad-uating
class of 2014 has seen a steep increase this
application season in the number of international
applications and an even more dramatic increase
in the number of applications from China.
According to the USC Office of Admission, the
number of international applicants has risen by
22 percent this year. The number of Chinese in-ternational
applicants, however, is up by three
times that, rising 66 percent.
“That’s not an uncommon occurrence,” said
Tim Brunold, associate dean and director of un-dergraduate
admission. “The applications have
been increasing from international students at a
very steady pace for several years now.”
Brunold noted that this increase is not specif-ic
to USC.
“I believe that it is consistent with other uni-versities.
I do think that there is a general sense
among many American colleges and universities
that China is a good place to go recruit students,”
Brunold said. “I think that this growing trend of
China is going to be something that will be with
us for a while.”
Still, Brunold attributed the steep rise to appli-cations
to USC from Chinese applications to an
increased outreach effort by USC Admissions.
“There’s always been a lot of interest from
Chinese students at our graduate level,” he said.
“But more recently, China has really taken over
the top spot in our freshman recruiting.”
While the number of applications might be
higher, Brunold said the percentage of Chinese
applicants admitted to USC has remained similar
to the overall average of acceptances over the past
two years. For the 2012 graduating class, 14.5 per-cent
of Chinese applicants were admitted, and 29
percent of Chinese applicants were admitted into
the 2013 graduating class, compared to an overall
admissions rate of 24 percent for the class of 2013.
Though Brunold expects the number of appli-cants
from China to continue to rise, he said the
university does not necessarily plan on increas-ing
enrollment.
“Every indication we have is that it will con-tinue
to rise. That also means though, just like
with any other group of students, it is going to get
more competitive. Whenever you have more ap-plicants,
there’s more competition,” Brunold said.
He added that the university is “very pleased”
Undergraduate applications from China up dramatically
Though applications are up 66 percent,
admission officials say the number
accepted will remain roughly the same.
| see china, page 2 |
Applications to USC
Source: Office of Admission
Percentage 25 50 75
Acceptance rate of Chinese applicants (class of 2012)
Increase in international applications
Overall increase in applications
Increase in Chinese applicants
Acceptance rate of Chinese applicants (2013)
Natalie Chau | Daily Trojan